Easter

Hello all,

I'm still around, and I even remembered the password to get into this account.  Yay for me.  I realize I'm pretty much the worlds worst blogger, but I never promised I'd be very good at it.  So on with the good stuff!

I love getting the whole family dressed up in coordinating outfits for church.  So much so that I actually wore a bit of pink!  Just a bit mind you.  You can't really tell in this picture, but the shirt under my jacket is pink and my necklace and earrings are pinkish.  I also painted my toenails pink.  And Kindi's to match.  That was quite the experience for her.  She loved it and yet was so nervous about it.  The whole time I was painting them she was fidgeting and giving me that nervous giggle sound.  You know, the one that you try so hard to avoid when you are at the doctor for something embarrassing.  Yeah, that one.

When I tried to paint our finger nails to match she got really excited and handed me her finger, until I pulled the brush out of the bottle.  I don't know what she thought it was, or was going to do to her, but as soon as I pulled it out of the bottle she would freak out and yank her hand away, hiding it under her chin or in her mouth.  I tried to paint mine, but after the fourth attempt being ruined by immediately having to help Kindi go potty or help Kaden button his pants... I gave up!

We even got Jeremy in pink!  What a gorgeous family!

Malaki, Lillie, Kaden and Kindi show off their finery.  

(Kori was having special Mommy time.)

 Hunting eggs.

 What a handsome little boy.  Where did my chunky baby go?!

 Don't ever put your chocolate down around Kindi.  She'll snatch it up and be gone before you know it!

Kindi is ONE.

 Is it possible?  Can she really be one already?  My 'baby' is not a baby any more.  She is getting to be more and more fun, but I can't help but be a little bit sad.  She is going to grow up way to fast, she is already pushing hard to keep up with Kaden.  She started walking before 10 months, and starting trying to talk about the same time.  Her first word was stickers believe it or not.  We were potty training Kaden and using stickers as an incentive.  So we spent a lot of time looking at and talking about stickers.  Of course if she said it to anybody but me you would think she was just babbling.  But it was very consistently the same sound every time.  :)  She is so much braver than Kaden when it comes to talking.  She tries new words all the time.  He used to look at us and grin with a mischievous look on his face.  He is really trying to talk now, but it is still pretty jumbled.  Kindi is also doing her best to follow in Kaden's monkey foot prints.  I hate this stage!  She is always managing to climb up on something and then standing up like she is the queen of the world.  She hasn't taken any really bad spills off of anything yet, but it sure makes me nervous and jumpy!  Thankfully she seems to have MUCH better balance and coordination than her brother!  It's a good thing too because although she is getting tougher, she is still quite the wimp.  I will have some more 1 year pictures that I'm pretty excited about, but for now... here is how Kindi's birthday went.

Since I decided to make Kindi's first birthday cake myself she got to enjoy her first beater!  Kaden showed her how and she dove right in leaving evidence of her treat all over her face and shirt.

 The day after Kindi's birthday I hosted a double baby shower and decided to make the cakes for that too.  I enlisted the help of a friend to make pretty fondant flowers for the shower and she made me a bunch of extras.  They were so pretty and girly that I used them to decorate Kindi's cake too, it made it so quick and easy to throw together a pretty cake.

 I made a small cake for Kindi to destroy out of two extra large cupcakes.  It had been so long since I had made frosting by myself that I got it a little bit too soft at first, so it was kind of running down the sides of her cake.  It firmed right up in the fridge though.  I figured it didn't matter too much, she was just going to make a mess out of it anyways.  So, did you notice there are two candle on it?  Oops!  I bought those cute curly candles so that I could use two of them as antennae for the butterfly cake I made for the shower.  So I didn't even think about it and grabbed two of each color and put them on the cakes.  I suppose it didn't look odd to me because I did two on Kaden's a few months ago.  It wasn't until Mom pointed it out that I realized my mistake.  We only lit one!  I also made a round cake for the rest of us to enjoy, cause who really wants to eat a cake that as been demolished by an excited one year old?

 Kindi did a pretty good job with her presents.  She had a lot of kids itching to help her. 

 My sister's kids' had wanted to play with the Vtech puppy they had gotten for her since they day they picked it out.  So they were pretty excited when she opened it.

 Daddy picked out a couple of really cute pink purse books.  Kindi loves to bring us books to read.

 I think Kindi was a little bit overwhelmed by all of the attention she was getting, and all of the eager hands reaching out to help her.  She did good with it though.

 I finished her quilt in time for her birthday!  Yay for me.  

 Grandma made up little treat bags full of party favors for all of the kids.  Kaden tried and tried and tried to blow his punching balloon up by himself.  He would give it to me and let me get it started then want to take it back to finish it.  It was pretty funny.  He never did succeed, but he had a blast!

 After presents we brought out the cake.  She was mesmerized.   I had high hopes that she would be able to blow her candle out by herself, but she doesn't really know how to aim her blowing yet.  She did try awfully hard to blow it out though.  I ended up blowing it out for her right before she tried to take a bite out of the flame.

 After we took the hot candle away she decided to blow the extra one out too.  What a cutie!

 She started out pretty slow, poking at the cake and pulling the flower off.  Lillie was a little confused, "Why doesn't she eat it with her face?!"  If you have ever seen pictures of Lillie's first birthday you will really appreciate that comment.  (She bent over and stuck her face in it.)  As Kindi got a taste of the frosting and realized that it was REALLY yummy, so got more into it.  She would grab at it then try to shove her whole hand into her mouth to suck it off.  

 You would expect a smile or two from a child who is devouring a chocolate cake, but she was quite serious about her task.  

 So we got Aunt Jeni down on the floor to tickle her and get her to smile.  Once she started smiling they started pouring out of her.  She had so much fun.  

This was a warm up cake smash.  On Saturday Kindi is going to be a model for a local photographer who needed some cake smash photos for her portfolio.  I am pretty excited to go do this.  I've been following Brandi Varnell Photography on facebook for awhile and really like what she does and her personality.  Plus because she requested to have 1 year old come destroy a cake in her studio, we get to do it for free!  And she is even going to give us some of the pictures on a disc.  I will have to post those when I get them too.

Tub Time

Kaden has recently started laying on his back in the tub.  He used to love to lay in the bath, but lately he preferred to be on his tummy.  The first time he did this was so funny to watch.  He slowly started to lower himself back into the tub, a grimace on his face that would make you think he was laying on nails.  Then when he rolled over to sit up again he got a face full of water and came up sputtering, shocked that the water had attacked him.  Did that slow him down?  Of course not!  He tackled that tub once again and when he came up this time he mastered it.

Believe it or not, when he gets out of the tub we wrap him up in his cute little towels and he loves them.  In fact he eagerly waits while we place them on his head (He has a duck and a shark.) then count to 4 as we wrap the towel and then his arms around the towel to hold it in place.  While I unplug the drain he takes two steps out the bathroom door, drops the towel and is off to enjoy his short stint in the nude.  And unless I want to clean up some sort of unsightly puddle, it is a VERY short stint!

Well Kori was the only one who would look at me, but after a long afternoon of playing in the sprinklers and the sandbox I tossed everyone in the bath. I'm sure you can imagine how filthy kids get when they play in a sandbox after running through the sprinklers!   And after seeing them all sitting in the tub it reminded me of a picture of me and my cousins so I just had to take this one.  I guess at least these guys are even.  My tub picture was me and my four boy cousins.

Gather Round the Fire

And now back to our regularly scheduled Milton Freewater Chronicles.

Here is a better idea of what Max's beautiful fire pit looks like.  Since we were there last he has created a gate of some sorts for it to keep crazed maniacs, aka Kaden, from falling in.  Kaden had grown ups hopping anytime we were out around the pit.  I don't think he would have gotten into the pit with the fire because I took him really close once and showed him how hot it was (He didn't like it and wanted to get away.), but as much as he runs and falls...  He attempted to give a few people a heart attack at times when he would veer too close.

Since Kaden is such a go getter he is always entertaining, but the family was excited to have another little baby around who they could just hold and cuddle with.  Kindi didn't seem to mind all the snuggles, although she did like to spend some time sitting in her bouncy chair by herself too.

So the fire pit is in front of us and behind us is the multi purpose BBQ and stuff area!  That is my technical name for it although I imagine Max has a more sophisticated name.  He has a regular propane BBQ, a Lousiana Grill/Smoker, an old fashioned Wood Cook Stove, refrigerator and tables and chairs.  I think he plans to put a sink in also.  He even made us breakfast out there a couple of times!

Big boy Kaden always so proud of himself for climbing up on something new!

The following two clips are Kaden's adventures with drinking like a big boy.  There were always lots of water bottles around and he was the master of snagging them and begging for someone to open them so he could pour them down his front.... oh, I mean, drink them!  Here Aunt Alyssa is refilling his bottle with a shot of water at a time.  He tosses it back like a pro, although I don't know if he actually consumed any.

Kindi's First Trip to Milton Freewater

   We went to Milton Freewater for the first time with Kindi over 4th of July weekend.   Jeremy and I were so worried about taking her for such a long drive (5 1/2 hours if we drive straight through and don't have bad traffic, usually more like 6-6 1/2).  Her typical reaction to being strapped into the car seat is to scream bloody murder (I've never really thought about it before, but that is a weird saying.)!  You would think we were pinching her as we clicked those buckles. 

   Jeremy had to teach summer school that morning, so I packed and kept Kindi awake as much as possible.  When we got ready to leave around 1 or so she was exhausted and had already stopped screaming by the time we got her out to the car, even though she was in the car seat already.  She passed out before we made it out of Lebanon and get this... Kindi slept all the way to Pendelton!!!  Hallelujah!  For those who don't know Pendelton is less than an hour from MF.  Of course when she did wake up she was incredibly hungry and very upset to be stuck in that chair still.  She started with her normal I'm unhappy, fix it, cry but before we could pull into Pendelton to stop at McDonalds, so I could feed her and Kaden could play, she was screaming this high pitched almost hyperventilating cry.  It was terrible and I had never heard her so distressed before.  Thankfully after a break at McD's she only cried for a few minutes before she went back to sleep and made it the rest of the way! 

   Kaden was an amazing trouper!  We usually stop at least a couple of times for him to get out and stretch a bit, but since Kindi was still sleeping we just kept driving.  He napped for the first hour and a half or two and then played quietly for awhile.  We also had a portable DVD player that Grandma had given to him at Christmas so he would have something to do on his next trip to see her.  He was amazed and captivated with the Veggie Tales for oh... 15 minutes!  The truly captivating part was the fact that he could reach the DVD holder with his feet.  So he kicked it for hours, I finally had to take the player away and just let him kick the case!  We did our best to entertain him and he made it with only a minimal amount of whining.  

All the cousins!

Emma, Kindi, Lily, Jacy & Kaden

   Max is a very talented... I don't know what you call him, but he is good at building and beautifying!   He built a fire pit and barbecue area that is absolutely gorgeous!  We ate most of our meals out there and spent the evenings by the fire.  I thought I had a better picture of it in here but maybe that is in one of the other posts.  Because there is so much that I want to share with you all the trip will be a series of posts!  Anyways, that is where we took these pictures.  :) 

Heath and Alyssa with their three beautiful, way to grown up girls!

Kaden wondering why they are all standing like that.

So our kids were so not into having their picture taken at the moment!  Luckily in this small version you can't tell too much.  Maggie (Max's mastiff puppy) decided to join us since she adopted Kaden.

Max had a picture of him and Kaden from last year's 4th of July that he loved and wanted to duplicate with Kindi.  She's not terribly impressed.  :)

Snuggling with Grandma.

Meeting Uncle Heath and cousin Emma.  I am ashamed to admit that I didn't get any pictures of Kindi with Aunt Alyssa.  :(

Great Grandma Remboldt

Kaden loved to stand at the gate from the house to the fire pit and be the door man.  He was quite the little gentleman opening and closing the gate for everyone.

And of course being the monkey that he is, Kaden spotted a ladder and just had to climb it.  He didn't ever get too high on it, but if we were there today he would be at the top in a flash!  He has been practicing climbing ladders at the park.

Jacy is going to show this little heifer at the Walla Walla County Fair this year... I think... it might be next year.  

Kaden didn't care to much for sitting on her back.

These last two pictures are just a couple of me and Kindi.  Kindi is so adorable and since it was her first time there we had to have a morning modeling session each day as we came in the door.  :)

It is so much fun having a little girl to dress up in all kinds of pretties!  

Slip n Slide

We gave Malaki a Slip 'n' Slide for his birthday this year, June 13th.  He didn't think it was warm enough to play with it yet, but the other kids did.

Lillie                                             Kaden

The left side of it sprinkles the slider, or in this case, the runners!

Morgan was the first one brave enough to actually slide on it.  There is a big puddle, of really cold water, to splash down into at the end.

I used to love slip n slides.  Now I think... How in the world did I used to do that?  OUCH!  I have joined the 'runner' crowd!

Kaden is such a water dog.

It came with a 'surfer' to slide down on... Maybe I will try that one someday, but probably not!  Morgan tried to get Kaden to do it, he wasn't interested in it at all.  (This was the same day as the 4 wheeler when he was sick.)  Kori thought she wanted to do it although she really wasn't too thrilled once they got going.

Then Morgan talked Zach (her boyfriend) into letting her pull him on it.  After that he showed off his surfer skills.

It also doubles as a drinking fountain!  Silly Kori girl.

Soaked and loving every minute of it!

Lillie makes a flying leap over the splash down pool.